Humble Bundle - Vampire: The Masquerade: Month of Darkness

I guess if you are going to put Vampire: The Masquerade up on Humble Bundle, you probably can't choose a better month than October.

The Vampire Bundle is one of those with a physical option for your purchase - 40 bucks (plus shipping) gets you all the books in PDF AND the Rivals card game. I've quickly learned that non-standard card games are NOT up my alley.

Without the card game, the PDF-only option for the Vampire Bundle clocks in at 18 bucks for 20 items/PDFs. I rarely find the 12-buck price point to have value, and the dollar basement level is often hit or miss.

I haven't looked at Vampire and the other titles in what was then The World of Darkness in decades and never had the opportunity to run a session, let alone play one, but the setting itself was an enjoyable read. 

 

Take your first step into the eternal night of Vampire: The Masquerade with this bundle of digital RPG rulebooks & supplements—plus the physical Rivals card game!

Get everything you need to start running RPGs in the storied World of Darkness, including digital rulebooks for both Vampire: The Masquerade and Hunter: The Reckoning, a host of sourcebooks covering the setting’s darkest mysteries, and a selection of adventures to get your campaign up and running.

When you pay $40 or more, you’ll also get the boxed Vampire: The Masquerade Rivals, a thrilling expandable card game set in the World of Darkness, as well as The Wolf and the Rat expansion and two bonus promo cards (shipping and handling not included). Succumb to the deadly allure of this legendary RPG setting, and help support charity with your purchase.

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Announcement - Mark Rein-Hagen Joins Vampire 5e Dev Team

This was announced yesterday on the White Wolf Facebook page.

Vampire 1e (and the GURPS Conversion) are the only editions I own.

Lots of strong personalities on the dev team. Should be interesting times.

White Wolf Comments on the V5 Pre-Alpha Playtest Release Reaction

My current thoughts on the matter? (prior post here)

It was all about the publicity. Good, bad, didn't matter. So long as V5 was being talked about. Some have said they'll never come near it now and some have embraced it but many more have talked about it.

And yes, I fed the beast. I may be feeding it again today, but I feel a follow up is needed, at least as far as highlighting some of White Wolf's response. You can read the full White Wolf blog post here.

Last week we released it to the world, and we are grateful for all your survey responses, emails, social media comments, and reviews. Now we are working on the alpha playtest for GenCon 2017, but your feedback on the pre-alpha makes it clear that we need to provide some context for the playtest and for V5.

Context. K.

Our oversight, for which we apologize, was not providing this context so that our players could see why and how we made these decisions. We needed to clearly state again that the material was intended for mature audiences, and to label it that way. We should have stated again that our vision for V5 brings Vampire back to its roots as a morality tale about evil, set in the darkest places of our own world. Contemporary, real-world horrors and atrocities are an important part of the setting and by extension – its characters. 

We’ll communicate this and other design-choices better as we go forward. We can and will make the game’s contents transparent for those who need them to be by giving you fair warning. 

I'm assuming you need to be 18 to download the playtest material. Or am I wrong? In any case, the genie is out of the bottle.

V5 Pre-Alpha QA 

We answer some of the most common questions about the V5 Pre-Alpha. Feel free to send us more questions. 

Q: Why is Amelina a pedophile?
A: She’s not. She has an obsession with young (recently embraced) Kindred and a feeding restriction that forces her to feed from children and young teens. 

Q: Why did you use the term “triggered” to describe someone easily offended on ideological grounds?
A: Because that is the common usage of the term in everyday language, no disrespect intended.  

Q: Why are so many characters children (“Club Kids”)?
A: The term Club Kid (at least in Sweden) means a youngish (roughly 18-25) person who spends all their free time at clubs, often under the influence of drugs.  

The first answer seems forced to me, like one of those answers thought up AFTER the question came up, but whatever.

The use of "triggered" is amusing, as I wasn't the only one to come to the conclusion that Amelina was a pedophile (there were victims of child abuse when they were younger that came to the same conclusion) so there was some "triggering" that was not part of the scenario but because of the scenario.

As for the Club Kids definition - never heard it used prior, not my social circle. Interesting that its being defined from a Swedish perspective. I guess White Wolf really is international now.

Ah well. Hopefully this puts a stake in the drama. Wait! Stakes still kill vampires, right?

What the Hell is Going On with the New Vampire Game? Pedophilia this Time?

I'll be blunt - I haven't followed World of Darkness since the various first editions. So when this was brought to my attention by David Knighthawk from the GamersonGamers Youtube Channel I thought "no fucking way!"

Wow. Way.

Whatever drama Zak S. brought to White Wolf pales compared to these throwaway pedophilia pieces. You want bad publicity for RPGs? White Wolf has you covered.

Right. So, vampire kids "could be" 100s of years old. Or 5. Doesn't matter. Amelina is pedophile, pure and simple. You're meant to roleplay this character? In a campaign?

There is a line between edgy and sick. It isn't fine or thin. It isn't indistinct. Its pretty fucking solid.

Yes, its only a game. Maybe it should be marketed to pedophiles. I'm sure they are an ignored market.

But wait! Maybe its taken out of context. Nope. Its actually giving you context.

Zak S Goes Full Story Gamer - Main Author of Vampire the Masquerade: We Eat Blood (and other related drama)

Yep, Zak S has gone full on story gamer. Good for him. Its all about the Benjamins anyway ;)

Now, if you read the linked post, there is some vagueboooking about allegations dealing with Zak's behavior online. That alleged behavior was apparently directed at David Hill. I could guess as to where such postings were made but really, does it matter? White Wolf has conducted a full investigation and found nothing wrong. Because investigating your own is always on the up and up.

No research assistants were harmed in the composing of this post...

Humble RPG Book Bundle - Vampire

Now, I know this might not be on the radar of most of my readers, but I remember when Vampire, Werewolf and Mage first came out. They were damn interesting even if I could never convince my group to play.

The value of this Humble Bundle is simply amazing, and if that buck gives you some ideas or inspiration for whatever system you are running you've more than made your money back.

The link to the Humble RPG Book Bundle - Vampire